Sime~Gen Roleplaying: District Controller's Office Scenario
Episode #159: Can't Get Good Help These Days (2/19/00)
Beni reports to Arat's office as ordered, low field and very chagrined.
Arat is sitting at his desk (now back in order), high field and stony-faced.
Beni hasn't yet gotten the full details of what happened while he was--well, suckered fits as well as any other term--but gathers that it was not what was supposed to happen. Not even close.
Beni signals exactly 15 seconds before the appointed time.
Arat: Enter!
Arat sounds very no-nonsense.
Beni does so, keeping his field in good order, except for the apology.
Arat looks Beni over long and hard.
Beni has actually progressed quite well in his goal of becoming a Farris-compatible Donor, recent contretemps aside.
Beni makes himself meet Arat's eyes, but it isn't easy.
Beni: Controller Arat.
Arat indicates that Beni should sit.
Arat hasn't acknowledged him verbally, though, which combination means that Beni is walking on a narrow line.
Beni does so, hoping that the concession means that Arat hasn't decided to quite throw the book at him.
Beni is well aware of just how heavy "the book" is, both figuratively and literally.
Arat: Your explanation? [coldly]
Beni spreads his hands.
Beni: I was played for a fool.
Beni: Snake has been restless all week--more so than usual, even when she's in need.
Beni: The night before our transfer, she didn't sleep at all. And so I couldn't, either.
Beni: She calmed down a bit in the morning, and I lay down for a quick nap before our transfer, so I'd be clear-headed.
Beni: The next thing I knew, Snake was being escorted back into the cell.
Arat raises an eyebrow.
Arat's eyebrow manages to silently give the impression that it sounds like Beni is using the old "I overslept" excuse, which has never been acceptable to teachers, bosses or Controllers.
Beni: Like I said, she played me for a fool.
Beni: Just how much damage did she do, anyway?
Beni is more than a little apprehensive about this, since people have been assiduously avoiding telling him.
Arat: She arranged for a riot in the East wing, then pulled the fire chain to cause the doors to fall blocking Security from easy access to the rest of the building.
Arat is still trying to get to the bottom of whose bright idea it was to keep this secret from Arat for as long as possible.
Beni: A riot?
Beni: ~~ dismay ~~
Arat: During the confusion, she diverted Pylor from his assigned transfer and brought him here, where she proceeded to encourage him to....
Arat swallows in involuntary revulsion.
Arat: Well, she encouraged him in a misadventure of his own.
Arat is not entirely sure what Neptude is going to do about Pylor yet, or about Arat for that matter, and so is not going to do anything that will wreck Pylor's career with bad gossip.
Beni: She brought Pylor to you?
Arat: Yes.
Arat doesn't want to say it, but it is the truth.
Beni is starting to get the picture, thanks to his more intimate acquaintance with Snake.
Beni: I thought she'd decided to take rehabilitating him as a personal challenge.
Arat: I believe it was in that context that she brought him here.
Beni: Rehabilitation? An illegal transfer?
Beni is too Tecton-straight to understand the logic.
Arat still can't quite bring himself to spell out all the gory details to Beni.
Arat has to struggle, and finally says, "She felt that confronting me would be of some benefit to him."
Arat of course is rarely of benefit to the opposing party when it comes to confrontations.
Beni: I thought she already did that. Something about a picture and an ashbin?
Arat has already told Beni more than he feels Beni had to know, and his look turns ugly as Beni presses for gossip.
Arat: Suffice it to say that Wise Snake was not carefully watched or securely confined, and that a good deal of damage was done as a result.
Arat: Both physically and in terms of human cost.
Beni waits to discover just how much of the "human cost" he personally will have to bear, for not being more alert.
Arat: I want a full report from you as to Wise Snake's behavior including activities which you know, or believe, to be occurring despite supposed confinement.
Beni: Yes, Controller.
Arat: I want the full details, to the best of your knowledge, of how she is effecting these escapes, and who she deals with during that time.
Beni nods.
Arat: And if I ever - [pauses to make sure he has Beni's full attention] - learn that you have failed to report anything of the like from this point onward, there will be serious consequences.
Arat: Do you understand?
Beni: Yes, Controller Arat.
Beni is ~~ completely chastened ~~
Arat regards him for a few moments, and then says, "That is all."
Beni struggles to his feet, Gen-awkward, and stumbles towards the door.
Beni is trying to figure out how to compile what are only vague speculations about Snake's extra-curricular activities into something moderately coherent.
Beni would have reported them to Arat long since, if he'd had anything more solid to go on.
Arat puts his head in his hands for a few minutes after the door closes. He hadn't wanted to come down on Beni so hard, but when he is held accountable for Snake's activities but must depend on the people around her for his information - and those people tend to become more loyal to her than to him - he feels helpless and trapped and that makes him hard on the people who can actually do something about it.
Neptude "drops by" for a visit with Arat, having learned in a management class that this allows issues to be discussed in a timely fashion.
Neptude is a firm believer in using the latest "sound management" principles, even when they don't work well.
Neptude allows his nager to be zlinned as he approaches, but does not bother with a formal signal--Arat is a subordinate, after all.
Arat jerks upright as Neptude walks in.
Neptude's management class emphasized the necessity of making clear the difference between boss and subordinate.
Neptude finds this particularly difficult to accomplish when said subordinate can zlin circles around him, while he can't zlin anything Arat doesn't want him to.
Arat looks angry at the intrusion, but also wary and caught-off-guard, since Neptude does have considerable influence on his future happiness and doesn't usually just walk in like that.
Arat is unaware that Neptude just read another management book this weekend.
Neptude: Arat, how have things been going?
Arat blinks, since he knows Neptude knows exactly how things have been going, and that's probably why he's visiting.
Arat has never been good with trick questions.
Neptude tries the recommended "welcoming smile to invite confidences and display readiness to listen".
Arat's nerves are not helped by the smile, which looks hungry and lazy at the same time.
Arat: I... hadn't expected you.
Arat tries to pick up the not-quite-yet assembled notes for his formal report to Neptude, which are scattered about the desk in neat piles.
Neptude: Now, now, Arat, you know my door is always open. Communication, that's what it's all about. Communication.
Neptude might have said "delegation", but that's the next chapter.
Arat's door is not always open, although this does not seem to be the time to mention it.
Neptude: How did your transfer go? Nick do a good job for you?
Neptude's book had a chapter on "The Personal Touch", right before the one on "Communication".
Arat: Well enough, under the circumstances.
Arat means, the circumstances of Arat having just been scared silly by being attacked by an obsessive fan/foe, and then nearly forced into the transfer by a Gen who obviously is more interested in a half-wild rogue than his own Controller and assignee.
Neptude tuts sympathetically.
Neptude: Yes, that was a bad business last month.
Arat tries to think back to which business Neptude might be referring to, that would loom larger than the business of two days ago.
Arat should know better than to try to parse Neptude's logic at this point.
Neptude: I heard you had a bit of excitement a few days ago.
Neptude has not, alas, been able to get any clear details, since Arat was out of commission directly after transfer, and no one else is talking except for some really outrageous rumors.
Arat looks at Neptude warily, since he doesn't know the bit about nobody telling Neptude anything.
Arat is the last person anybody would tell about people not telling people things.
Neptude paid close attention to the side bar about getting the whole story before acting on rumors.
Arat nods.
Neptude: Perhaps you could give me a more thorough account of the problem?
Neptude is glad that he was able to remember that sentence well enough to quote it verbatim.
Neptude's book recommended it for reducing the implied threat of boss-confrontation, expressing confidence in an employee, and generally getting the whole picture.
Arat: There has been a security problem regarding Wise Snake Farris. And, Pylor attacked me for transfer.
Arat thinks that sums it up rather well.
Arat thinks Neptude knows all this, and wonders what game is being played.
Arat does not like games.
Neptude had not expected this sort of whole picture.
Neptude: Pylor gave you transfer?
Arat has been needlessly worrying about how Neptude is going to handle the situation - not because no worry was needed, but because Neptude didn't know enough to be making a decision yet and Arat could have saved 2-3 days of worrying.
Arat: No, I was able to fend him off. [stiffly]
Neptude is ~~ relieved ~~
Neptude: Does that at least mean that he's getting over that irrational hate of you?
Arat is somewhat affronted that Neptude could possibly mistake his current condition for something that Pylor could have pulled off. It illustrates how poorly Neptude understands Arat and his requirements.
Arat: I doubt it.
Neptude: But then, why?
Neptude: ~~ puzzled ~~
Arat: It is my belief that the change was partly due to Wise Snake's influence, and partly due to a shift in the type - not the intensity - of his feelings against me.
Arat hasn't written off the possibility that Pylor's "discovery" of the new angle on his feelings wasn't entirely Wise Snake's doing as well.
Neptude: She's been working with him, I recall?
Neptude: I'd been told he has been making good progress?
Neptude thinks that Arat's description of what happened implies that those reports were exaggerated.
Neptude really hates it when reports aren't accurate; it's so much more trouble to run down the facts himself.
Arat is not sure what to make of that question, particularly as it's not clear where he'd been hearing that progress reporting from.
Arat is still under the illusion that he personally had nothing to do with the assignment of Snake to Pylor, and that it was entirely Neptude's doing and that he was out of the loop on communications regarding it.
Arat: I had been under that impression as well.
Neptude: You said there have been security problems with Snake, though? Could that have been a factor in Pylor's training?
Arat: Yes.
Arat frowns as a tiny itch in the back of his mind tells him that there is something about what Neptude just said that should be ringing a bell for him.
Arat can't quite put a finger on what that might be, though....
Neptude: What exactly has been going with her, anyway?
Arat: I am attempting to determine that as we speak.
Arat: There has been some difficulty with communications which I am attempting to remedy.
Arat means, the security guards and other people responsible for daily contact with Snake have generally nodded very sincerely when Arat instructed them, but then slacked off as soon as he was gone.
Arat has always had this problem with the security and Donor staff (and indeed, has whipped them into considerably better shape since being assigned to the Controller position) but the problem becomes highlighted in a whole new gruesome light when a patient as dangerous as Snake is introduced.
Neptude: Really? I've found the most helpful book, explains all about that. I'll send it to you, as soon as I finish it.
Neptude liked the paragraph on "personal touches" and how they improve communication.
Neptude: About your daughter, though....
Arat grimaces internally at the reminder of the relationship.
Neptude: You have been allowing her to work as a channel, under supervision, correct?
Arat had been under the impression that the "supervision" had been tight and secure, but has recently had reason to doubt that was the case.
Neptude: How has she been performing?
Neptude: Or do you have accurate information on that?
Neptude has moved into Step Three: Remind the employee who is boss, which comes after Step One: Be available and Step Two: Break the ice.
Arat: Her channeling skills are excellent when she applies herself.
Arat is not unaware that this is exactly how he characterized Snake's performance 6 months ago.
Neptude: And how often is that?
Arat: About 60% of the time.
Arat is not aware that the other 40% of the time, somebody else is doing the channeling work and Snake is off gallivanting about on her private business.
Arat: In all cases, when I have been there to observe she has done brilliant work.
Neptude harumphs, and rubs his chin thoughtfully.
Arat: I am... not certain how well the reports of her other monitors can be trusted. [admits reluctantly]
Neptude: It's when others are supervising her that she slacks off?
Neptude: Anyone in particular?
Arat: I am still in the process of investigating that, but I will be certain to include my findings in my report to you.
Arat thinks, and deal with said parties severely.
Arat: It appears that the personnel involved were not necessarily those I had assigned to the duty.
Neptude: They've been trading off on the duty?
Neptude is aware that this goes on all the time, but is only willing to turn a blind eye to it when the work gets done, properly and on time.
Arat nods once.
Arat feels extremely uncomfortable talking about this without getting the whole picture himself.
Arat is in the middle of tearing the place apart finding out what is going on (and of course trying not to drop any balls in his regular work).
Arat was badly embarrassed by the riot incident and by Snake's behavior in general, and shocked by Pylor's level of... of... what exactly was that?
Neptude: Well, I want to know exactly what happened. And include a full evaluation of both Snake and Sosu Pylor.
Neptude: Not just their roles in this latest incident, but skills, reliability, morale, and prospects.
Arat nods.
Arat: Very well.
Neptude: Let me know about any other personnel who are causing problems, as well.
Arat intends to let Neptude know only about those he can't avoid Neptude finding out about on his own, since he can deal with the others himself.
Arat: Of course.
Neptude: If they can't appreciate a nice posting in Capitol, there are other options.
Arat has been made painfully aware of that recently.
Arat's opinion of how disturbing the whole Snake River Dam conversation with Nick was, has been somewhat muted by what followed directly after it, though.
Neptude has been fishing for less desirable personnel, ever since he got a heads-up memo from the higher-ups that there would be an urgent demand for channels, Donors, and other staff come spring.
Neptude sees this as a splendid opportunity to clean house.
Neptude does not immediately discount the possibility of starting the cleaning at the top.
Arat zlins Neptude's attention become more personal, and actually turns pale.
Arat finds Nick's speculative prattle unnerving enough, but when power-wielding nitwits like Neptude start talking the same way....
Neptude finds Arat's performance on the day-to-day management of the District exemplary, but is distressed at the number of complications that have been cropping up anyway.
Neptude has found himself more and more speculating on the possibility of putting the 53rd District in the tentacles of a channel who does not have such demanding requirements, Donor-wise, and who is not the logical choice for iffy and disaster-prone special assignments.
Neptude also likes the idea of having a subordinate whose nager he can zlin through; Arat's Farris control leaves him feeling inferior.
Arat: I will have the report to you by mid-morning tomorrow.
Neptude: Do that, I'll be waiting for it.
Arat hadn't planned on having it ready until the next day, and now will be creating a veritable tornado of investigation and paperwork throughout the District complex.
Neptude stands.
Neptude: I'm eager to see your recommendations on how to handle the matter.
Neptude wonders if they'll be superior to the option of exporting the whole mess to Norwest Territory.